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PAPERS: Thomas Grein, Francesco Checchi, Josep M Escribà, Abiy Tamrat, Unni Karunakara, Christopher Stokes, Vincent Brown, and Dominique Legros Mortality among displaced former UNITA members and their families in Angola: a retrospective cluster survey BMJ 2003; 327: 650 [Abstract] [Full text]

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Another health problem in Angola: Leprosy

Susumu Wakai   (30 September 2003)

Another health problem in Angola: Leprosy 30 September 2003
Susumu Wakai, Prof. University of Tokyo 7-3-1 Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan Send response to journal: Re: Another health problem in Angola: Leprosy	Another health problem in Angola: Leprosy Thomas Grein and others clearly demonstrated the relationship between the war and people’s health in Angola. Medicine san Frontiers or MSF has been working for years in this country even in war zones. They reported malnutrition, fever or malaria and war or violence were major killers. In addition to that, Angola has been one of the highly endemic countries of leprosy. When plotting the area where the prevalence of leprosy over 5 per 10,000, all provinces under UNITA relocation camps except Huila (1.72 per 10,000). In other provinces it was ranged 5.83 to 11.33. When considering the UNITA people move with their families, prevalence of leprosy is likely to be unchanged. Intervention for leprosy need to be integrated into other health problems. References 1) Leprosy Elimination in Angola. National Strategic Plan for Leprosy 2003-2005. Ministry of Health, Angola. 2)WHO http://www.who.int/lep/ Competing interests:   None declared